Watch the brand new restora­tion trail­er for The Deer Hunter

The Amer­i­can film­mak­er Michael Cimi­no made a total of sev­en fea­tures over a 23-year peri­od between 1974 and 1996. His remark­able, con­tro­ver­sy-strewn career coin­cid­ed with the so-called New Hol­ly­wood move­ment, and Cimi­no him­self came to rep­re­sent the very best and worst of this cul­tur­al­ly pros­per­ous decade.

The director’s infa­mous 1980 mega-flop Heaven’s Gate sound­ed the death knell for one of the most fruit­ful peri­ods in Amer­i­can cin­e­ma his­to­ry. At his peak, how­ev­er, Cimi­no made arguably one of the great­est films of the New Hol­ly­wood era, The Deer Hunter, which was described by The New York Times’ crit­ic Vin­cent Can­by as ​“a big, awk­ward, crazi­ly ambi­tious, some­times breath­tak­ing motion pic­ture that comes as close to being a pop­u­lar epic as any movie about this coun­try since The Godfather.”

Cimi­no was already a well-known fig­ure in Hol­ly­wood by this point, hav­ing direct­ed the Clint East­wood-star­ring Thun­der­bolt and Light­foot four years ear­li­er. But it was with The Deer Hunter that Cimi­no announced him­self as major new voice. The film was a huge com­mer­cial suc­cess and won five Oscars includ­ing Best Pic­ture, and remains one of the most sear­ing indict­ments of the Viet­nam War ever com­mit­ted to celluloid.

This year marks the film’s 40^th anniver­sary, and to cel­e­brate Park Cir­cus are re-releas­ing this land­mark work in cin­e­mas this sum­mer. This brand new restora­tion trail­er recuts the action in pul­sat­ing quick­fire mon­tage, cul­mi­nat­ing in the noto­ri­ous Russ­ian roulette scene between Robert De Niro and Christo­pher Walken, play­ing Penn­syl­va­nia fac­to­ry work­ers who are the thrown to the slaugh­ter in the name of Uncle Sam.

The Deer Hunter returns to cin­e­ma from 4 July. The film releas­es on Blu-ray, The Collector’s Edi­tion and EST 20 August and on 4K Ultra HD on 15 October.